This morning I spent some time investigating feed readers and services to replace Google Reader. A lot of internet users have been since Google announced Reader is going away this summer. It’s easy to pull up a list of possible alternatives, but ultimately I found it necessary to just dig in and try them out to see which works best.

I dug in, and here’s what I found out.

Where I’m coming from

In a replacement RSS reader, I’m looking for a couple of things. I’ve always liked the idea of hosting the feeds in one place and having my pick of applications for doing the actual reading. Reeder has been my go-to app on the Mac, and apps like Flipboard are fun to use on iPads.

And I’m not just looking for myself, either. Ashley has RSS subscriptions, though she does use them a bit differently than I do. Sync isn’t as important to her, but there is an account with subscriptions that we share from time to time. That’s one reason why Google Reader and syncing apps were so useful.

So ideally I’d like a service that will hold my subscriptions, but is also compatible with apps that might want to sync with it. Obviously this is a pretty tall order right now, so I’ve got to look for those services that look like they will offer the best options in the coming year.

After all, Google Reader has been the standard for so long it’s going to take some time for other services to really rise up.

I made a list based on what I’ve found recommended online in the last week or two. Then I just ran down the list trying things out. Here’s what I found.

(I should mention I’m a Mac user, so I really only look into apps that will work for me. That said, many of these options are web apps and should work no matter what platform you’re operating on.)

The Old Reader is pretty simple, but I’m still waiting

I don’t recall using Google Reader during its earliest days – though honestly I don’t have the best memory with things like that. The Old Reader claims to emulate that early Google Reader experience, which sounds fine to me. Simple and to the point sounds great to me.

Signing up was easy, as you’d expect. Once logged in, though, I found what what seems to be an unmovable “trending” section that sits below other options. I could care less what’s trending on the service. Ideally I could remove or hide that, which I don’t think I can, but at least it doesn’t look like it’s the default view when you pull the site up.

That said, I haven’t been able to spend any time with The Old Reader. It seems there are lots of folks jumping into the service, and my OPML file import file is behind a queue of over 12,000 other imports. Still is. Assuming I’m notified by email when the import is finished, I’ll give The Old Reader a proper shake.

Until then, let’s move on.

NewsBlur just doesn’t do it for me

I saw mentions of NewsBlur too, so gave it a look. The sign up process alerted me that free sign ups have been disabled, and prompted me to upgrade my account. I didn’t do that, since I wanted to check everything out and get a lay of the land before paying anything.

It seems the big increase in sign ups since the Google Reader announcement is what motivated NewsBlur to turn off free sign ups.

So at this point I moved on to try other things out. After returning to it later, though, I discovered what I thought was a partial sign up was actually a full sign up and was working. As far as I can tell the prompt to upgrade and the “free account sign ups are disabled” message is only to motivate upgrades, and not quite real. At least, in my case, my account is a free one and functions.

So long story short, I was able to give it a trial. And I’m glad I was able to. The feel is very – for lack of a better word – Windows-y. It feels like a Windows explorer window, or a file structure in a web-based FTP app of some sort. In other words, not great. I’m not into the aesthetic at all, and I’m glad I didn’t need to spend twenty bucks to figure that out.

Moving right along.

Feedly was a bit confusing, but close

Next I tried Feedly, which I knew going in was a big favorite amongst those who’ve walked from Google Reader. It’s a service that, on first glance, seemed like it would work like The Old Reader and allow me to import my subscriptions in. But it’s not quite that.

On the Feedly homepage I was confused. In my mind RSS services tend to fall into two large groups: those where you read the feeds in a browser, and those where you download an app and use that. Google Reader is one of the former kind, and NetNewsWire one of the latter. On first glance, I wasn’t sure what the heck Feedly was.

Feedly homepage, before setting up the browser extension.

It offers three options: download for Safari (or Chrome, in the screenshot above), for iOS, and for Android. This makes me think it’s app based, right? After all, there are definitely iOS and Android specific apps. But the language download for Safari threw me, since I’m not sure what that means. I would expect it to say download for Mac.

Turns out that downloads an extension, which is what I did next. It acts like any other extension or bookmark in your toolbar, expect the only purpose it seems to serve (as far as I can tell) is to take you to your Feedly homepage. To put it in context, right next to the Feedly icon in my browser I have one for 1Password and another for iCloud tabs. Both give me enhanced functionality in the browser, and do what I expect them to do. The Feedly icon doesn’t subscribe to the current site’s RSS feed, which is what I expected, but just jumps me to the Feedly site.

This was another confusing step, because I couldn’t see a way to create a Feedly account. Any service like this uses an account, right? I need to create a username, add my email, and maybe set a password. But the only option I had was to login or sync with Google Reader.

Maybe I’m making too big a deal out of this process, but I was hung up on it for a good minute. Because synchronizing with Google Reader is not what I’m looking to do at this stage. I’m looking to upload the OPML file I’ve backed up from Google Reader and transition over to something new. Synchronizing with the soon-to-be-dead Google Reader seems like a silly choice. Heck, I already have Google Reader synchronized with Reeder and NetNewsWire and I know that won’t work for longer.

Without any other option I could see, I went ahead and logged in with my Reader account and set it all up that way. Only after doing some digging did I discover, on the Feedly blog I believe, that synchronizing is the way to do it right now. By the time Google Reader closes down, they say, everything will be seamlessly ported over. So signing in with Google Reader info is the right thing to do, as odd as it seems to me to do it.

Now that I was actually into the service, I thought it was mostly neat. The design of the interface will take some getting used to, mostly because it always takes me some time to find my way around the really minimalist design aesthetics. The style carries over to the iOS apps, which I grabbed to try out as well.

While on the Feedly blog I also read a bit about their Normandy project. It’s an effort on their part to create an API to match the Google Reader API, to make it easier for other services and apps to offer Feedly synchronizing as an option sooner. It sounds like a neat endeavor and definitely weighs in on my decision as to which option to go for.

Alright, next up.

NetVibes seems like overkill

I actually ran a second Google search for NetVibes after arriving on their site, thinking there must be another one that offers RSS services. The NetVibes homepage emphasized what seems to be their core offerings: monitoring and analytics. It didn’t seem to be an RSS service, as far as I could tell.

But this was the correct NetVibes, the one that people had mentioned in a few Google Reader alternative roundups. So I dug in a bit more, watched their demonstration video, and signed up.

Or I should say, I tried to sign up. For the life of me I couldn’t get their sign up process to successfully send me an activation email. I tried a couple of times, and it just wasn’t sending. I checked junk mail, tried a different email and username, but it just wasn’t doing it. Since the service already looked like it wasn’t quite the right fit, I moved on. It just wasn’t worth my troubleshooting for that long.

Next.

Pulse isn’t aimed at me

First impression: I think I’ll really like the look of Pulse. I signed up without trouble (not normally something I would mention, but after the tough NetVibes experience it stands out) and took a look around.

It was frustrating trying to import my OPML file. My first impulse was to search out a settings screen or option to do it within a preferences menu or something. You know, like most apps and services would handle it. It still seems crazy to me now, but it seems the only way to import the file is to first sign out of the site, visit their homepage, and use their importer. Then, after the file imported, I could associate the feeds with my existing account.

Totally weird. But it worked, and then I had my feeds in.

But not quite. That was when I discovered that Pulse operates a bit differently – not bad differently, per se, but in its own way that shows a clear philosophy at hand. Pulse organizes feeds, or what they refer to as “content” throughout, into topics. But each topic can only hold a handful of feeds – which they call sources, I think. The end result here is that my feeds, which number in the hundreds and are assembled into meticulous folders, ended up in folders like My Folder Name 01, My Folder Name 02, My Folder Name 03, and so on. Pulse broke up my feeds into folders based on their folder limitations, which had the effect of destroying my organization method.

Which means I can’t use Pulse.

I still spent some time playing around with it. I tried out the iPhone and iPad apps, both in an attempt to properly organize my feeds. You know – rename folders, change the order, move feeds around, and so on. I couldn’t find a way to do it. Not in the web app, or the mobile apps. There may very well be a place to do it, but I couldn’t find it. So that’s no good.

But really, once I knew the folder limits were set in place and don’t seem to be changing any time soon, I knew it would never work for me. It’s not that Pulse is bad, really, it’s just that it won’t work for me. It has a different kind of reader in mind. Perhaps a more casual one. But not me.

Next is Fever.

Fever, hot but a bit more work

I enjoyed reading Ryan Markel’s reasoning behind his choice to go with Fever as his Google Reader replacement. It seems like a neat product, with a very pleasant aesthetic. But there’s no trial, and requires a purchase to then install it on my own server to use it.

That made me think. Really, it just seems like too much work for a feed service. I’m all for owning my own stuff and having control over it, but there’s also some stuff I prefer not to have to think about.

In this case, I see the OPML feeds I’ve curated as my stuff. And I have those. Backed up and safe – even more so after the news about Google Reader. But where I put those feeds, and where I choose to read them, I guess I don’t feel like I have to fully control that. I’m happy to rely on a hosted service or application that isn’t going to make me handle everything.

The more I look at Fever, the more I wish it had a hosted version. Or at least a proper demo that would let me really play with it to see if it’s worth my purchase.

That said, moving on.

Vienna is a fun project to follow

I didn’t see many mentions of Vienna, but I wanted to give it a fair shake. It’s an open source Mac application that is being openly developed on Github. Fun side note: their site is using a fairly recognizable WordPress theme. Open source loves company, it seems.

So the app seems solid. Along with a now nearly useless Google Reader synchronization option, it allows you to dump feed subscriptions directly into it. This would be a solid option for Ashley if she wanted to ditch NetNewsWire, but it’s not great for me since I still want a service that will allow synchronization in multiple places.

I’m going to keep an eye on the project, of course. If it ends up with broader synchronizing options than Reeder does before Reeder does, I’ll likely switch over to it for a bit. After all, I still have a thing for desktop apps.

What I’m sticking with in place of Google Reader

That does it for what I spent time with today. Ultimately, I didn’t find exactly what I wanted: a subscription management service that can sync with multiple applications that I could choose from. But I knew from the beginning that I was likely asking too much. Until lately, development time with RSS applications seems to have been mostly focused on Google Reader integration. Now we need more options – any other options! – and it will take time for those to pop up.

So while I didn’t find exactly what I wanted, I think I found a horse worth betting on. I’m going with Feedly, for now. The design works for me, is an update to Reader while still keeping things fresh and new, and has a plan for the future that seems smart to me. Let’s say I’m cautiously optimistic about Feedly.

It’s possible I’ll switch over sometime – I still haven’t had proper time with The Old Reader yet – but for now I’m with Feedly. I don’t generally like just going with the accepted popular option. I prefer to try everything out myself and make a decision on my own. It just turns out in this case that what I like best and what it seems the internet at large likes best is pretty close.

I’m still a bit nervous – no, let’s say curious – about the more confusing aspects of Feedly. For one, I don’t seem to have a login with them aside from my Google Reader info. So when that goes away, what do I log in with? Will they just email me that information in time? I don’t know. We’ll see, I guess.

One last takeaway: I was surprised how many of my experiences finding the right service just weren’t pleasant ones. I still think there’s room to make this process a lot better, and probably room for better products and services. Heck, even Feedly, the service I ended up choosing over the rest, gave me about as much trouble getting started with as anything else did.

If you’ve found something interesting in your own search, feel free to drop your findings in the comments below.

59 thoughts on “My experience looking for an RSS service to replace Google Reader”

Actually I had made the move back a few months to Reeder as I liked their UI so much better. I did freak out when I heard the news as Reeder pulls in from Google Reader. But shortly after that I was reassured by Reeder that the app would continue to work.

Yup, it sounds like at the very least it will be a standalone app that can accept an OPML file dump. I’m hooked on the idea of a service that will synchronize with other apps, though, thus the search for something new.

Reeder’s my go-to app on the Mac, but I might be using the browser a bit to see if I get used to Feedly.

Great post! I’m in the same boat. I use Reader to manage my subscriptions. Then Pulse on my Nexus or Reader on PC to view. I also use it to manage podcast subscriptions and use Doug Catcher to listen.

I’m leaning towards Feedly, but right now the other apps I use aren’t integrated with it. I wish Reader wasn’t going away, but it’ll just take some time for all this to sort itself out. Feedly is clearly the big winner so far from Google’s decision to kill Reader.

Reeder will work via the API for Feedbin.me. Feedbin is new and very spartan right now but it works great. Some may be put off by the $2 per month fee but if it performs well and my data is kept private I’m cool with that.

I was interested to see this comment, because I’ve been looking into ustart as a replacement for my iGoogle page, but I can’t get ustart to import my data from iGoogle or Google Reader, nor to synch my calendar with Google Calendar.

When I go through the steps on the ustart page to “Import your iGoogle or Netvibes page”, steps 1 and 2 appear to work, but then step 3 doesn’t. For the iGoogle import, it only shows tickboxes for 2 of my widgets, and then doesn’t actually import anything – the Tasks widget shows up blank. For Google Reader, the “Step 3 : Select what you want to import” box is blank. And in the My Calendar widget, ticking the “Sync with Google Calendar” has no effect at all. Real shame as I am going to be in dire need of a replacement for so many of the services Google is axing – but I need to be able to import my existing data. Am I doing something wrong, Sebastien?

I’m also in the Feedly boat and had similar impressions to you. It was a bit confusing to get going and I’m having to let go of my controlling nature that needs to review every feed item in person to decide whether I need to read it or not, and use tools like the Today tab, to get the essential information. I too am cautiously optimistic about Feedly and the ways in which it will help us to manage our RSS feeds after the season of Google Reader. RSS still has a long future IMHO: Twitter can’t quite fill that gap when you’re not at your computer all day long.

In my search, I went a different route, not worrying about Apps for my devices, but also wanting to minimize the need to switch again in a few months or… ever.

I’m still keeping everything in Google until all the players you mentioned settle out on their strategies, but a friend turned me on to Tiny Tiny RSS which is a self-hosted option. It’s not for the faint of heart and has some work to do, but I’m really liking it for the time being.

You can create multiple users (make it a new service even!) and import your OPML file too. There is a mobile friendly UI available, although it believes my iPad and iPhone should look/work the same. Not great.

Just yesterday my feeds were imported in The Old Reader and out of all of the apps it was the most like Google Reader in its actual feel and function. It marked items as read very smoothly as you scrolled and you have the “river of news” option. There was only one really annoying item – it doesn’t hide feeds with 0 items. So if you’re like me and you follow 150 feeds it can take a bit of scrolling to see what’s new.

While not critical the other feature I miss is the option to send to Buffer.

Feedly is pretty good but it feels very cramped and the “mark as read” as you scroll doesn’t seem to work all the time which is annoying.

I would love to use Reeder for the Mac but I want to be able to click a feed and see the full article for all the items in a long list. I don’t want just the titles – feeds are much easier to scan. If this is an option I’ve somehow missed please please someone inform me.

Soooo, like you Ryan I’ve not found a genuine replacement. If you had to make me choose today I would probably choose Feedly.

Authentication may indeed seem a little weird, but here’s the trick. Both the “Login” button and the “Connect to Google Reader” button do the exact same thing. They log you into Feedly using your Google Account via OAuth, with one of the permissions being “Manage my Google Reader data”. So when Google Reader is gone, you’ll just keep logging in with your Google Account, nothing will change.

With regards to Feedly being a browser extension, it’s not just a link to the website. One of the things it adds is a Mini Toolbar on every page you view in your browser. There might be other things I’m not aware of

I’ve been there and I did all that. I was so mad at Google that I could not stand staying with Reader another day. The best alternative, by far, is http://www.bloglovin.com/
The view is a list, and not dominated by images like the alternatives. It has a good and simple IOS app. Try it. You will never look back. It imports directly all your feeds from Google Reader (no need to deal with exporting and importing).Its only strange feature is that you add a feed by putting the url of the site you want to follow, and bloglovin offers you the available feeds. So you don’t put in the direct feed url. Not a big deal. Try it. It is the best alternative for me.

Fever works great for me; I’ve been using it off and on since it came out, always sticking with Google Reader since it was my original reader. Now that it is going away, I’ve been back to Fever and am loving it. Tried Feedly and the Old Reader and prefer Fever.

I tried a lot of the Google Reader replacement apps and ended up settling on Feedly. I really like the categories feature because I subscribe to over 150 blogs. I also like that you can change the view for each feed. Some feeds are better in the traditional Google Reader format, some are better with pictures in magazine view.

I’m still mourning the loss of Google Reader, but it won’t be long til I shed the last tear.

Feedly works for me. It was kinda weird at the beginning. I could not get used to the interface. Probably I was looking for Google Reader experience. I am also keeping an eye on the old reader. Once they come up with an android app, I’ll make another switch.

I’ve tried some of the ones you mentioned in this article but I went with NetVibes. I actually didn’t have a problem registering with them. It did take a little time to get use to their interface but I like it and use it now as my RSS reader. I tried Feedly but it was too confusing and I felt lost so I gave up on it.

I was happy to find this article and its comments. I will be trying Feedly based on this and a recent article I just read that reports that Feedly gained 3+ million ex-Google Reader users in two weeks.

Currently I’m using FeedDemon synched with GReader too. It’s interesting how GReader API wasn’t official (which means they could block it anytime) and still every tool used it.

Sadly, I feel RSS as a whole is going down, even though everybody says the opposite. Trackback was never used, and Pingback also didn’t succeed. With Orkut, Facebook and other closed proprietary junks like those, ppl prefere to use them other then have their own blogsphere websites in WordPress.com or blogbosta.

Well, FeedDemon will also die, its author is tired of it after a decade and it seems to be needing a hardworking 2.0 remake to move on. He will release an ending version, that will be free and have all pro features, but will lose synch.

I still don’t know if I stay with it without synch or move to Feedly or NewsBlur. NewsBlur seems to have a better UI, but it automatically marks articles as read after 2 weeks, which forces us to use it too frequently. GReader’s 4 weeks mark is already too short for me! and I don’t like this kind of marketing strategy to force users to keep in touch.

Feedly seems to be – or at least aims to be – the new integration-synch choice. But its UI is strange and I saw no info about auto-read-marks.

For now I’m cleaning my starred to-read articles, then I’ll better test both and choose.

After some more evaluation of NewsBlur and Feedly, I decided for NewsBlur for my new RSS Reader.

I still don’t like it auto marking articles as read after 2 weeks, but other than that it’s almost perfect. It has option to – inside these 2 weeks – NEVER auto mark as read, which is my top requirement. I just have to browse articles and type ‘u’ to mark them read as I go. I also love how it allows me to nest folders inside folders, and read all feeds from top one.

I didn’t like at all Feedly’s green and white look, I barely can read stuff on it. NewsBlur has great Look & Feel, and I hope to get used to its shortcuts.

2 other things I didn’t like in NewsBlur is that its saved stories are shown separated and not inside their feeds (but I think Feedly does the same), this really must be fixed. And also that it allows adding the same feed in multiple folders (another big requirement for me), but doing so it counts this feed multiple times for the 64 feeds limit in free account. About this 64 feeds limit, it allows us to add as many as we want and choose at any time 64 of them to be used while others remain dormant.

If I get used to NewsBlur and its premium account provides option to never mark articles as read regardless of their publish time, I may pay for it in the future.

Nice article, and although the quest here was longer than mind, the patter was very, very similar.

My first impulse was The Old Reader, but (sadly) it just isn’t up to this influx of users. After a few other random attempts, I ended up with Feedly. Now that they have “title view” as a standard option, I actually prefer it to Google Reader. My only wish-list item now would be that it simply be web-hosted, and not require any plugin. (I often use Seamonkey, and I reckon they won’t be getting around to Seamonkeying their Firefox plugin any time soon!)

I’ve not done much looking around just yet but started using Feedly just a week ago or so and I’m still a bit iffy about it. It seems okay to me for just keeping updated with blogs but takes a while to load sometimes (maybe that’s just me) and is definitely something just another option out there, though one of the better as I’ve been hearing.

Thanks for clearing up some good comparisons and what you are trying out.

I ended up with Feedly also, and found the transition wasn’t too bad. The only problem I had was figuring out that the lined icon on the left is where my feeds are hiding. The checkmark on the right marks all posts as read. It imported my Google Reader feeds just fine. Works like a charm for me.

I’ve just found InoReader (https://www.inoreader.com) and I must say it’s my Google Reader replacement no matter what! I saw you guys talking about the old reader, but it’s very ugly and too colorful for me… I will check what the guys at digg will make, but as I said, I think i’m fortified now with ino.

I found myself in the same situation with the closing of Google Reader I was left for no real alternative (and I’ve never actually looked for an alternative).

I tried some of those listed above but I found my “Holy Grail” at The Old Reader. Sure there was some waiting but it was all worth it.

The Old Reader’s interface is simple, the way to get a quick overview of all the feeds is fast and there is all the options I need.
And as a bonus for me they have a direct integration with Pocket (Formerly Read It Later).

There are however some specific areas I hope to see some improvements and one of those is to develop an API for the service.

Wow, I don’t know currently there are many good alternatives for Google Reader. From your list, I only know Pulse and Feedly. I tried Feedly and fell in love with it’s design and simplicity. I’m using Feedly now

I switched over to The Old Reader. Yes, it takes forever to import, but when it does I think you’ll find that it is the closest thing to Google reader. It has all the features without any of the extra crap you don’t want.

Hi,
I’m very new to this Google reader, but I started loving it. Now since Google reader is moving out.
I wish to have a reader who can pull out the past messages/entire list of messages from the subscribed RSS urls rather than pulling out only the last 30 days additions.

Can you please recommend me any such reader which will suit my search.
Thanks in advance

I’m very new to this Google reader, but I started loving it. Now since Google reader is moving out.
I wish to have a reader who can pull out the past messages/entire list of messages from the subscribed RSS urls rather than pulling out only the last 30 days additions.

Can you please recommend me any such reader which will suit my search.